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Sunday Afternoon Discoveries at Blackwell Heritage Preserve: Field Trip Report, May 19, 2024

Posted on by Jesse Freeman (Upstate)

Photo Credit: Margaret Sirois

by Margaret Sirois

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than a guided walk through the Blackwell Heritage Preserve with Dan Whitten and Dr. Gillian Newberry!  

 The bunched arrowhead (Sagittaria fasciculata) was in flower as expected.  It was a personal first for me as  I’d seen the plant but never in bloom.  At first glance the seep habitat this plant requires looks like a wetland, but the water is shallow and always flowing.  

We also found the rare dwarf-flowered heartleaf (Hexastylis naniflora).  Rather than attempt my own description, I refer you to a recent SCNPS newsletter articles:  

Photo Credit: Margaret Sirois

Narrow-pod wild white indigo (Baptisia albescens) was in bloom.  The grassy fields were a perfect setting to showcase these bright white, showy flowers. Southern beardtongue (Penstemon australis) was also in perfect bloom.

Photo Credit: Margaret Sirois

Lichens are sometimes overlooked in our enthusiasm to find spring wildflowers, but with Gill Newberry along – not so!  She showed us a soft moist specimen of reindeer lichen (Cladonia rangiferina). We learned that Gill has a PhD in lichenology – how cool is that?  Most of us are probably used to calling this species reindeer moss, but it is a lichen in the Kingdom Fungi and is a mutualistic relationship between a fungi and an alga.

Blackwell Heritage Preserve exists today thanks to the efforts of many including: Upstate Forever, Southern Environmental Law Center and the SC Native Plant Society.  A very special thanks to Frank Holleman.